The Luminous Landscape Essays: A Book Review and Results

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Mastering Landscape Photography: The Luminous Landscape Essays
A Book Review and Results:

For the serious Landscape Photographer there is a grail to find and chase...It is not the Golden Hour as many go on about, but the golden 15 minutes at Sunrise and Sunset that lay the foundation for stunning images...The Grail of capturing Lemon, Orange and Purple in one lurid desert image is only possible during this magical time...The Luminous Landscape will help with the logistics of this most difficult assignment. Pre shot reconnaissance, sky chart and map drawings for sun angles, sun rise and set times, test shots and a 3 day shooting window is all that is required for that take home shot everyone will envy. LL will help bring it home. ( )

Look at any magical photo in print and chances are it was taken at Sunrise or Sunset.
The time of the Luminous Landscape...

All Alone in Jasper Alberta

52.811742, -118.036221

A 3:00 AM get up alarm and half hour drive during high Summer...The only problem?
It was 18 degrees F. That is just one of the challenges in capturing
The Luminous Landscape...To get this photo required, test shots and 2 days of travel in Jasper National Park to find the likely candidate...1st morning out had no sunrise and snow...Back to the lodge...The next day was clear and cold, but perfect for capturing Jasper's beauty.

Looking Towards the Home of the Manitou...

52.728668, -117.637931



An ancient wreck of a light house on Lake Michigan after a gray day of rain and solid clouds...Let's just go out and see?

After the Storm and In the Water to my Knees!

45.055239, -87.088962

After a lifetime in heavy industry with too much noise and way too many folks at every turn, the solitude of nature at Sunrise and Sunset, when no one else is out and about has its own reward. Leopold, Muir, Thoreau & Abbey's words are guides and the palette of the lens the window on Gaia's wonder...

Spider Woman's Home...She Brought Weaving to the Navajo

36.114250, -109.437782

The Luminous Landscape Essays are not a magic' how to' and like any thing worth doing, there is an exceptional amount of work involved in imaging this most captivating time...

I have found that only the last or first 15 minutes of sunlight is the true window on the Luminous Landscape...A thing worth doing just for the sake of it. 5 stars...

 

Landscape of Legend

36.980539, -110.094193

 

 

 

Plying with the Nostepinne and Tibetan Spindle New You Tube Video

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Images and Photography: Copyright TheDancingGoats...

TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…

Http://TheDancingGoats.com

New Folkways Lesson: Learn to make finished yarn with the Tibetan Spindle and a Nostepinne!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lAIBev0wRo

 

For new spinners, we recommend trying a bottom whorl support spindle as a 1st spindle, the cost is low and the learning success rate is high...Many spinners tell us they have quit using all of their other spindles in favor of my Compromise Tibetans.

https://www.etsy.com/people/TheDancingGoats

There are many to choose from in our ETSY Store!

Look for my customer feedback on this tool...

 

The Tibetan Spindle form is an ancient tool and spindles in this style are found all over the world.
The most common of spindle types in the early anthropology texts and early Smithsonian Ethnographic reports. 

Bottom Whorl Tibetan Spindle in Apple Wood

 

The Nostepinne or Yarn Stick and a Tibetan Spindle are all the tools required to make a finished yarn...Great for demonstrating at Festivals. My Nostepinne has a 30-1 taper and that makes a tight ball of yarn very easy to remove 

 

The Ancient Yarn Stick

 

All of the over dyed Shetland Yarn in the image was made on a Tibetan Spindle.

Ready for my Navajo Loom...

Over Dyed with Cushing Acid Dyes...Available in our ETSY Store 

 

Cup-O-Fiber...Artisan Dyed Fleeces Ready to Spin from The Dancing Goats

Watch our Videos on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats/videos
Images and Photography: Copyright TheDancingGoats...

TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…

Http://TheDancingGoats.com

 

 

Cup-O-Fiber!

 3 Ounces of fiber in a recycled drink cup...

New Art Bats will be available in TheDancingGoats booth this season...

They will be in a variety of hand spinners wools...

Dori & Oin's Baby Finn Fleeces ready to spin

 

3 Ounce Cup-O-fiber portions for $19 at Festival in various TDG Colorway selections....

Hand Sheared, Hand Picked, Hand Washed, Hand Dyed and lightly mixed and carded in our Cottage Mill...

 

Lightly Processed and a joy for spinning...The same fibers we use for teaching Hand Spinning...

 

 

The House of Rain Book Review

 

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TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…
Http://TheDancingGoats.com

 

 

House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest… by Craig Childs
A Review
One of the essential American Archaeology titles in TheDancingGoats Library

 

Chaco Canyon Complex

 

Staring through enigma’s lens. Stand above Chaco Wash and look down on Pueblo Bonito… Stand on top of Chimney Rock, look at Huerfano Mesa, Dzil Na'oodilii to the Navajo & you are looking at the signaling station to let Chaco know of the great 19 year cycle of the Moon. Roads that run straight for hundreds of miles. Construction techniques identified without plausible conjecture as to how they were carried out. Fajada Butte's Great Calendar…Enigmas all…

Craig knows what the archaeologists have forgotten. There were
many more people in the Southwest than is widely acknowledged, time is deep and current
explanations are too simple. Not hindered by the vicious politics of archaeological academia
Craig asks questions that others dare not. His answers are neither political nor archaeological.
They are sociological conjecture supported by compelling logic…
The best one so far by the wild man of the desert… ( )

Unbelievable Masonry Techniques

 

All of this complex stone work was covered with Adobe. What aesthetic could account for this? 

Odd Alignments

 

Windows where none should dwell...except the Sun or the Moon at season's tide change...

Kivas Everywhere

No wood within a hundred miles...No water...The wood from the wrecked buildings was used as firewood by the early archaeologists...Was the region around the great lunar observatory at Chimney Rock also the source of the thousands of  logs for the Kiva's and Pueblo's?  Once every 19 years the moon passes through Chimney Rock's the twin towers...
A remarkable event...What changes did it trigger?

Did it correlate with similar observations at the great lunar monitor on Fajada Butte?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fajada_Butte

A List of the Colonial Trades

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TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…
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Miles to Go and A Library to Build:

Maker notes for my students...
A List of the Colonial Trades at the End...

·         The time it takes to learn to be a journey person Maker is significant…

·         It requires an extensive library that targets colonial skill sets from the 16 & 1700’s

Basket Reed for Besoms

 

Study and Practice:

-Build 1st Principle Skills
-Read about a chosen trade
-Try a simple project
-Build on success
-Challenge your skill set every day

 

Finnish Landrace and Shetland Fleece Ready to Card

 

In an extremely local economy the ability to practice a trade is invaluable.

The Woodworker and Allied Trades, Leather Worker an Allied Trades
and Spinning & Weaving embodied a significant proportion of daily activity
during Colonial times.

Anyone practicing these skilled trades found themselves valued members of their society.

 

Our Fleece Dyed with Cushing Acid Dye

Pick a trade...
Build a library...
Practice a Craft...
For the World Made by Hand

Trades in Colonial America during the 16/1700’s

·         Apothecary - acted as pharmacist, doctor, dentist, and general storekeeper

·         Basket Maker

·         Barber - cut hair; also was a surgeon

·         Beekeeper: Wax & Honey

·         Blacksmith-Armorer - made things from iron and repaired weapons

·         Bookbinder

·         Breeches maker/ Tailor

·         Brick maker

·         Broom Maker

·         Cabinetmaker - made and repaired furniture

·         Carpenter-joiner - built interiors of ships and houses

·         Chandler - made candles

·         Coach maker - made coaches and wagons

·         Cooper - made containers of wood, such as barrels

·         Cutler - made, sold, and repaired knives and scissors

·         Distiller- Medicine/Fuel/Spirits

·         Dressmaker

·         Doctor

·         Farmer

·         Farrier - shoed horses and acted as a veterinarian

·         Goldsmith - made hollow ware (bowls, cups, and vases) and jewelry

·         Gunsmith

·         Colonial Trade Craft

·         Hatter

·         Harness Maker

·         Leather dresser

·         Milliner - made dresses and hats and sold accessories

·         Music Teacher

·         Orchard/Soft Fruit Farmer

·         Pewter/Tinsmith

·         Printer - published the newspaper, sold books and other printed materials, and often served as postmaster

·         Rope maker

·         Saddler - made saddles, harnesses, and other leather items

·         Shoemaker/ Cobbler

·         Silversmith

·         Spinner

·         Tavern Keeper - provided meals, drinks, entertainment, and lodging

·         Tinker

 

-         Tinsmith

·         Tool Maker

·         Treen Maker, Spoons & Kitchen Items

·         Weaver

·         Wheelwright - made wheels and carts

·         Wigmaker

·         Whitesmith - made things of iron and steel, then polished them to make them look like silver

 

 

Broom Making at the Ozark Fiber Fling

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TheImaginariumForge, is the ETSY Shop BLOG of TheDancingGoats…

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Join Us for a fun weekend at The Ozark Fiber Fling: Classes in the Fiber Arts including my class on tying the Hearth or Welsh Hand Fasting Besom!

The List of Classes at OFF is here:http://www.ozarkfiberfling.com/home/event-information-2/classes/

Finished Besoms at Festival

Harvest of the Broom Corn is done by hand as no machine process can save the
sorghum fiber used for making the Brooms...An added benefit  comes form saving the Broom Corn seeds...Some to grow and the Chickens go nuts for the Sorghum Seeds...

Load-O-Corn!

The seeds are stripped off with a comb as soon as they are gathered....
Wait too long and the fiber becomes brittle and will break up when combing the seeds..... Corn Harvest is usually around Labor day weekend in the southern reaches of Zone 6 in Little Egypt...
Hung up to dry, the fibers will turn golden yellow and be ready for tying into brooms...

 

A Festival Favorite..Broom Making
Learn and demonstrate this skill and you will be invited to more festivals than you can possibly attend

 

Laying or tabling the corn is done after the fibers turn green...

 

 

A pastoral scene at Oak Knoll Farm...The Shetland and Finnish Landrace Sheep on Paddock 2, The big old goofy Maremma Dog, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maremma_Sheepdog
The Broom Corn & Sunflower patch...

 

Broom Corn harvested and Sunflowers ready to dry for the chickens...

 

See you at The Ozark Fiber Fling!